Communication scheme with operations to supplement limitations of portable terminal device

ABSTRACT

A communication scheme capable of realizing operations to supplement the resource shortage or the poor environment of the portable terminal device is disclosed. At the radio portable terminal device, whether a specific processing of the data packets received from a correspondent device connected to the computer network or the telephone network is to be carried out using resources of the radio portable terminal device or not is determined according to an attribute of the data packets or data contained in the data packets, and a part or whole of the data contained in the data packets are transferred to another portable computer/device connected to a local network or another computer connected to the computer network, such that the specific processing of the data packets determined not to be carried out using the resources of the radio portable terminal device is carried out at another portable computer/device or another computer when

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention

[0002] The present invention relates to a communication scheme forcarrying out voice (speech) or data communications through a radiotelephone network, and more particularly to a communication scheme inwhich a connection to the Internet is made via a radio telephone networkand voice or data communications are carried out in the IP packet formatthrough this connection.

[0003] 2. Description of the Background Art

[0004] Due to the spread of portable telephone (cellular telephone) orPHS (Personal Handyphone System) terminals, communication servicesutilizing the radio communication system are now widely in use. In theseportable telephone (cellular telephone) or PHS terminals, communicationservices are realized by carrying out radio communications with radiobase stations and being multiply connected to wired communicationnetworks through these base stations.

[0005] On the other hand, due to the spread of the worldwide computernetwork called the Internet, various information services on theInternet have been developed. In particular, much attentions have beenattracted to the Internet telephone (IP telephone) for carrying outcommunications through the Internet by assembling IP packets fromtelephone voice data, which takes the advantage of the fact thatcommunication cost is quite low on the Internet compared with theconventional telephone network. Typically, as shown in FIG. 19, IPtelephone gateways for relaying between a voice telephone network andthe Internet are provided inside telephone stations, for example, andcommunications between these gateways are realized through the Internetsuch that communications can be carried out with only a fee up to theclosest telephone station (or the closest IP telephone gateway location)even in the case of long distance telecommunications.

[0006] Such an Internet telephone is also applicable to the case wherethe terminal is a radio portable terminal such as a cellular telephoneor PHS terminal. For example, as shown in FIG. 20, the Internet radiotelecommunication system can be realized by providing a router devicefor managing a plurality of radio base stations such that this routerdevice functions as the IP telephone gateway and carries out dataexchange with the Internet.

[0007] Of course, on the Internet, multimedia data in various formatscan be transferred according to the standard protocol. For example,voice, still images, dynamic images, data files of specific application,etc. can be transferred by the single TCP/IP protocol by assembling IPpackets from these data. Consequently, in FIG. 20, by setting up aprotocol for transferring TCP/IP packets between the router device andthe radio portable terminal through the radio base station, it becomespossible to exchange these multimedia data transferred on the Internetwhile utilizing the Internet telephone at the same time. Morespecifically, it becomes possible to realize an application whichenables voice communications while transferring related image data (dataof references or maps, for example), or receiving a news clip in voicewhile also receiving related photographs as images.

[0008] However, in the case of carrying out the multimediacommunications including the Internet telephone as described above byusing a radio portable terminal, the radio portable terminal whichgenerally has a compact size is expected to be associated with variouslimitations regarding resources.

[0009] For instance, there can be cases where even when the image dataare received, there is no display device that can display the receivedimage data in sufficient resolution. There is also a limitation that thescreen size is small.

[0010] Also, because the multimedia data generally have large datasizes, it is even possible to encounter situations where the entiretransmitted multimedia data cannot be stored in the worst case.

[0011] On the other hand, in view of the environment in which theInternet and the telephone network are utilized, in many cases theutilization environment of the radio portable terminal is generallyworse compared with the ordinary fixed PC, for example. For instance,there can be cases where a contract for the local telephone can be madeat a fixed rate only for the fixed PC at one's home but not for theradio portable terminal, or cases where many Internet applications aremore convenient to use on the ordinary PC than the radio portableterminal (such as cases where many more Web address information can bemaintained on the ordinary PC than the radio portable terminal forobvious reasons).

[0012] As described, in the case of realizing an Internet service thathandles the Internet telephone and the multimedia data by using a radioportable terminal, the radio portable terminal which generally has acompact size is associated with many limitations regarding resources,such as a lack of a display device capable of displaying image data insufficient resolution, or a lack of ability for mounting a storagedevice such as memory or disk that can store the large amount ofmultimedia data, for example.

[0013] Also, the radio portable terminal is associated with a poorerhandling of applications or a poorer environment that requires a highercommunication medium utilization fee, for example, compared with thefixed PC at a home or even the portable note PC.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0014] It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide acommunication scheme capable of realizing operations to supplement theresource shortage or the poor environment of the portable terminaldevice.

[0015] According to one aspect of the present invention there isprovided a radio portable terminal device, comprising: a radiocommunication unit for carrying out communications via a computernetwork or a telephone network through a radio base station byexchanging data packets; a local network communication unit for carryingout communications with another portable computer/device connected to alocal network different from the computer network or the telephonenetwork, the local network being a network locally defined forcommunications between the radio portable terminal device and saidanother portable computer/device; and a packet transfer processing unitfor determining whether a specific processing of the data packetsreceived from a correspondent device connected to the computer networkor the telephone network by the radio communication unit is to becarried out using resources of the radio portable terminal device ornot, according to an attribute of the data packets or data contained inthe data packets, and transferring a part or whole of the data containedin the data packets to at least one of said another portablecomputer/device from the local network communication unit and anothercomputer connected to the computer network from the radio communicationunit, such that the specific processing of the data packets determinednot to be carried out using the resources of the radio portable terminaldevice is carried out at said at least one of said another portablecomputer/device and said another computer.

[0016] According to another aspect of the present invention there isprovided a radio portable terminal device, comprising: a radiocommunication unit for carrying out communications with a correspondentdevice connected to a computer network or a telephone network, through aradio base station by exchanging data packets; and a packet transferprocessing unit for determining whether a prescribed condition issatisfied for the communications with the correspondent device or not,and transferring data packets containing data to be transmitted to thecorrespondent device to a prescribed another computer connected to thecomputer network such that the data to be transmitted to thecorrespondent device are transmitted to the correspondent device fromthe prescribed another computer when it is determined that theprescribed condition is satisfied for the communications with thecorrespondence device.

[0017] According to another aspect of the present invention there isprovided a gateway device, comprising: a transfer unit for transferringvoice data received from a network for transferring data packets, to aradio portable terminal device that is a destination of the voice data,via a telephone network through a radio base station or via the networkthrough a router device and a radio base station; and a control unit forjudging whether a specified condition is satisfied by non-voice datathat are to be transferred along with the voice data to the radioportable terminal device, if the non-voice data exist, and controllingthe transfer unit to transfer the non-voice data to anothercomputer/device without transferring the non-voice data to the radioportable terminal device when it is judged that the specified conditionis satisfied by the non-voice data.

[0018] According to another aspect of the present invention there isprovided a communication processing control method at a radio portableterminal device, comprising the steps of: connecting the radio portableterminal device with a correspondent device connected to a computernetwork or a telephone network, through a radio base station, andreceiving data packets from the correspondent device; connecting theradio portable terminal device with another portable computer/deviceconnected to a local network different from the computer network or thetelephone network, the local network being a network locally defined forcommunications between the radio portable terminal device and saidanother portable computer/device; determining at the radio portableterminal whether a specific processing of the data packets received fromthe correspondent device is to be carried out using resources of theradio portable terminal device or not, according to an attribute of thedata packets or data contained in the data packets; and transferring apart or whole of the data contained in the data packets from the radioportable terminal device to said another portable computer/device oranother computer connected to the computer network, such that thespecific processing of the data packets is carried out at said anotherportable computer/device or said another computer when the determiningstep determines that the specific processing of the data packets is notto be carried out using the resources of the radio portable terminaldevice.

[0019] According to another aspect of the present invention there isprovided a communication processing control method at a radio portableterminal device, comprising the steps of: connecting the radio portableterminal device with a correspondent device connected to a computernetwork or a telephone network, through a radio base station, andreceiving data packets from the correspondent device; determining at theradio portable terminal device whether a prescribed condition issatisfied for communications with the correspondent device or not; andtransferring data packets containing data to be transmitted to thecorrespondent device from the radio portable terminal device to aprescribed another computer connected to the computer network such thatthe data to be transmitted to the correspondent device are transmittedto the correspondent device from the prescribed another computer whenthe determining step determines that the prescribed condition issatisfied for the communications with the correspondence device.

[0020] According to another aspect of the present invention there isprovided a communication processing control method at a gateway device,comprising the steps of: transferring voice data received at the gatewaydevice from a network for transferring data packets, to a radio portableterminal device that is a destination of the voice data, via a telephonenetwork through a radio base station or via the network through a routerdevice and a radio base station; judging at the gateway device whether aspecified condition is satisfied by non-voice data that are to betransferred along with the voice data to the radio portable terminaldevice, if the non-voice data exist; and controlling the gateway deviceto transfer the non-voice data to another computer/device withouttransferring the non-voice data to the radio portable terminal devicewhen the judging step judges that the specified condition is satisfiedby the non-voice data.

[0021] Other features and advantages of the present invention willbecome apparent from the following description taken in conjunction withthe accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0022]FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing an exemplary basicconfiguration of a network for realizing the communication schemeaccording to one embodiment of the present invention.

[0023]FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an exemplary IP voice data packetformat used in the communication scheme according to one embodiment ofthe present invention.

[0024]FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an exemplary internalconfiguration of a radio portable terminal device according to oneembodiment of the present invention.

[0025]FIG. 4 is a diagram showing one exemplary configuration of arelated PC information table in the radio portable terminal device ofFIG. 3.

[0026]FIG. 5 is a diagram showing another exemplary configuration of arelated PC information table in the radio portable terminal device ofFIG. 3.

[0027]FIG. 6 is a diagram showing still another exemplary configurationof a related PC Information table in the radio portable terminal deviceof FIG. 3.

[0028]FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an exemplary configuration of atransfer data attribute table in the radio portable terminal device ofFIG. 3.

[0029]FIG. 8 is a diagram for explaining an exemplary operation sequencewith respect to attached data packets in the radio portable terminaldevice of FIG. 3.

[0030]FIG. 9 is a diagram for explaining an exemplary operation sequencewith respect to synchronized data packets in the radio portable terminaldevice of FIG. 3.

[0031]FIG. 10 is a diagram for explaining another exemplary operationsequence with respect to synchronized data packets in the radio portableterminal device of FIG. 3.

[0032]FIG. 11 is a diagram for explaining another exemplary operationsequence with respect to synchronized data packets in the radio portableterminal device of FIG. 3.

[0033]FIG. 12 is a diagram for explaining another exemplary operationsequence with respect to synchronized data packets in the radio portableterminal device of FIG. 3.

[0034]FIG. 13 is a diagram for explaining another exemplary operationsequence with respect to synchronized data packets in the radio portableterminal device of FIG. 3.

[0035]FIG. 14 is a diagram for explaining an exemplary operationsequence with respect to attached data packets in an Internet telephonegateway according to one embodiment of the present invention.

[0036]FIG. 15 is a diagram for explaining another exemplary operationsequence with respect to attached data packets in an Internet telephonegateway according to one embodiment of the present invention.

[0037]FIG. 16 is a diagram for explaining an exemplary operationsequence with respect to transmission data packets in the radio portableterminal device of FIG. 3.

[0038]FIG. 17 is a diagram for explaining another exemplary operationsequence with respect to transmission data packets in the radio portableterminal device of FIG. 3.

[0039]FIG. 18 is a diagram for explaining a cooperative operation of aradio portable terminal device and another computer according to oneembodiment of the present invention.

[0040]FIG. 19 is a diagram for explaining a conventional Internettelephone network.

[0041]FIG. 20 is a diagram for explaining a conventional Internet radiotelephone network.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0042] First, the major features of a communication scheme according tothe present invention will be briefly summarized.

[0043] In the present invention, a radio portable terminal device havinga function for transmitting or receiving data packets through a radiobase station with respect to a correspondent device that is connected toa computer network or a telephone network determines whether or not tocarry out packet communications by cooperating with another computeraccording to properties of the packet communications.

[0044] For example, while communications using the radio portableterminal device are carried out, when the image data or the like that isreceived as attached information of the voice data are to be displayed,if a display device associated with the radio portable terminal devicehas a problem regarding a resolution or a screen size, the image dataare transferred to another computer having a higher performance displaydevice, such that the image data can be displayed there immediately, orstored there and displayed later on.

[0045] Also, for example, when the radio portable terminal devicereceived an ftp file and this file is to be stored, if a memoryassociated with the radio portable terminal has a problem regarding acapacity, this file is transferred to another computer having a memorywith a larger capacity, such that this file can be stored there instead.

[0046] Also, for example, in the case of accessing some Web page fromthe radio portable terminal device, if a direct access from the radioportable terminal device is more costly than accessing from anothercomputer and transferring the access result from there to the radioportable terminal device, the acquisition and transfer of that Web pageare requested from the radio portable terminal device to that anothercomputer, such that the Web page information can be acquired at a lowercost.

[0047] There are also many other possible forms of cooperation betweenthe radio portable terminal device and another computer.

[0048] Note that the determination as to whether or not to cooperatewith another computer can be made, for example, by registering inadvance a cooperating condition and a corresponding cooperationprocessing, and determining to cooperate when the communicationsatisfies the condition. Also, when it is determined to cooperate, thecooperation processing specified in correspondence to the satisfiedcondition will be executed.

[0049] It is also possible to provide a plurality of computers ascandidates for the another computer to be cooperated, and the anothercomputer to be cooperated can be selected from them according to theproperties of the packet communications.

[0050] For example, in the above described case of displaying the imagedata, the note PC that is carried around by the user along with theradio portable terminal device can be selected such that the image datacan be transferred and displayed there immediately. Also, in the abovedescribed case of storing the ftp file, the desktop PC at the user'shome can be selected such that the ftp file can be transferred therethrough the Internet and stored there, and then read there after theuser comes back to the home. Also, in the above described case ofaccessing the Web page, a computer for which the cost becomes lowest canbe selected.

[0051] Also, according to the present invention, it becomes possible forthe radio portable terminal device to make a connection to the Internetvia a radio telephone network and exchange voice data and othermultimedia data by using TCP/IP packet communications, while carryingout temporal storing, transfer, and other processing of the transmittedor received data in cooperation with another computer that is connectedwith the radio portable terminal device via the Internet connection orlocal communications using radio, infrared, etc.

[0052] Thus, according to the present invention, as the radio portableterminal device cooperates with another computer, it becomes possible totake full advantages of the advantageous features of the radio portableterminal such as its mobility, convenience in use, and practicalusefulness, while realizing operations to supplement its limitationsregarding its performance as a computer, operation environment orcommunication cost.

[0053] Referring now to FIG. 1 to FIG. 18, the embodiment of acommunication scheme according to the present invention will bedescribed in detail.

[0054] First, with reference to FIG. 18, the basic configuration of thisembodiment will be described.

[0055]FIG. 18 shows an exemplary network configuration considered inthis embodiment, and a manner of utilization of a radio portableterminal according to this embodiment. In FIG. 18, the case where theradio portable terminal 1 carries out some communications with acorrespondent not shown in the figure will be considered.

[0056] The radio portable terminal 1 has a function for carrying outcommunications and other processing by itself, but in this embodiment,the radio portable terminal 1 also has a function for carrying outcommunications and other processing in cooperation with a fixed computer7 that is located at a home or an office (which is assumed to be adesktop PC at a home in this embodiment) and/or a mobile computer 8which is also carried around by a user of this radio portable terminal 1(which is assumed to be a note PC in this embodiment). The radioportable terminal 1 is capable of communicating with the desktop PC 7via an IP network, for example, and communicating with the node PC 8 bylocal communications using a medium such as radio LAN, Bluetooth, orinfrared (IrDA), for example (but IP communications may be alsopossible).

[0057] This radio portable terminal 1 has a function for carrying outInternet communications via a radio telephone network, and at a time ofexchanging voice data or other multimedia data by communications usingTCP/IP packets, the radio portable terminal 1 registers a cooperatingcomputer in advance and carries out a control for switching theprocessing content regarding display, storing, transfer (communication),etc., according to data attribute (data amount, processing capability,storing capability, etc., for example) of received data or data to betransmitted. For example, this control can be made as follows:

[0058] (1) voice data or image data are immediately outputted from avoice output device or a display associated with the own device (and notstored);

[0059] (2) Received data are stored into a local storage device providedinside the own device, in a file format;

[0060] (3) Received data or data to be transmitted to the correspondentare transferred to the registered computer and separately stored orprocessed there; and

[0061] (4) voice data are outputted from a voice output deviceassociated with the own device, while image data are transferred to theregistered computer and stored there.

[0062] In this way, it becomes possible to take full advantages of theadvantageous features of the radio portable terminal such as itsmobility, convenience in use, and practical usefulness, while realizingoperations to supplement its limitations regarding its performance as acomputer, operation environment or communication cost.

[0063] Now, a communication scheme according to this embodiment of thepresent invention will be described in further detail.

[0064]FIG. 1 shows an exemplary basic configuration of a networkaccording to this embodiment. The radio network is operated by a radiocommunication service provider in general, and radio portable terminals1 a to 1 n of FIG. 1 are accommodated using radio base stations 2 a to 2m of FIG. 1 such that services of communications between the portableradio terminals 1, as well as communications between a radio portableterminal 1 and a telephone accommodated in a telephone network 3 areprovided. Also, a router device 5 is provided such that services oftransfers of packets containing voice data or other multimedia datatransmitted from a radio portable terminal 1 to the IP network 4(Internet, for example) or packet transfers from the IP network(Internet, for example) to the radio portable terminal 1 are provided bythis router 5.

[0065] On the other hand, the telephone network 3 is operated by a radiocommunication service provider in general, and telephones (not shown)are accommodated such that services of communications between telephonesand communications between the telephone and the radio portable terminal1 are provided. Also, an internet telephone gateway 6 is provided suchthat the Internet telephone service provided by transferring voicetelephone data via the IP network by this internet telephone gateway 6.

[0066] The internet telephone gateway 6 is a device for converting voicetelephone data into IP packets and transferring IP packets to theInternet at a time of using the Internet telephone, which is assumed tobe provided inside a telephone station in this example. In the case ofusing the Internet telephone, the user makes a dial-up connection to anaccess number allocated to this Internet telephone gateway 6, and givesnecessary destination data to the Internet telephone gateway 6. TheInternet telephone gateway 6 then searches the IP address of theInternet telephone gateway 6 nearby the correspondent, and makes aconnection on the IP network. The Internet telephone gateway 6 nearbythe correspondent calls up a telephone of the correspondent andestablishes an end-to-end connection. In FIG. 1, any of communicationsbetween telephones within the telephone network 3, communicationsbetween radio portable terminals 1, and communications between atelephone and a radio portable terminal 1 become possible by utilizingthis service.

[0067] In such a connection set up utilizing the Internet telephonegateway 6, it is assumed that the radio portable terminals 1 a to 1 noperate as ordinary radio telephones and call up the nearby Internettelephone gateways 6. In this case, there is a connection via thetelephone network 3 between the radio portable terminal and the Internettelephone gateway, and a processing for converting analog speed datainto digital signals, assembling IP packets from the digital signals andtransferring the IP packets to the IP network is carried out on theInternet telephone gateway 6.

[0068] As a format of an IP packet to be assembled from the voicetelephone data, a combination of RTP (Real Time Protocol) and UDP (UserDatagram Protocol) can be used, for example. FIG. 2 shows an exemplarypacket format in this case.

[0069] Note that, in this embodiment, it is supposed that the radioportable terminal 1 can also access the IP network via the router device5 provided on an upstream side of the radio base station 2, rather thanvia the internet telephone gateway 6. Consequently, if the sufficientcomputation resource can be reserved on the radio portable terminal 1side, the digital voice packets may be transmitted via the router device5 by carrying out the above processing of the Internet telephone gateway6 on the radio portable terminal 1 side. Note however that this functionis available only in the case where a mechanism for searching an IPaddress of the correspondent gateway and a coding scheme of thetelephone voice data are disclosed by the service provider.

[0070] Namely, in this embodiment, in the case of transmitting IP voicedata to the radio portable terminal 1, either one of the following twooptions can be selected arbitrarily:

[0071] (1) A call is terminated via the telephone network 3 through theInternet telephone gateway 6 nearby the radio portable terminal 1; and

[0072] (2) IP packets are directly transferred to the radio portableterminal 1 via the router device 5, without using the Internet telephonegateway 6 nearby the radio portable terminal 1, and the voice data aretaken out from the IP packets, converted into analog signals andoutputted at the radio portable terminal 1.

[0073] Similarly, an option of using the nearby Internet telephonegateway 6 and an option of transmitting IP packets directly can beselected in the case where the radio portable terminal 1 is thetransmitting side.

[0074] Now, as described above, there are other PCs to be operated incooperation with the radio portable terminals 1 a to 1 n in this system,such as the desktop PC 7 and the note PC 8 in FIG. 1. The desktop PC 7is a PC provided at a home of a user of the radio portable terminal,which is also connected to the Internet 4. On the other hand, the nodePC 8 is a PC to be carried around by the user along with the radioportable terminal 1, and the radio portable terminal 1 is assumed to becapable of communicating with the note PC 8 via the Internet 4 or via alocal network using radio or infrared (such as IrDA). Note that theoperation in the case of communications via the Internet 4 with the notePC 8 is basically the same as in the case of the desktop PC 7, so thatonly the case of communications via a local network using radio orinfrared (such as IrDA) will be described as far as the note PC 8 isconcerned.

[0075] Next, the configuration of the radio portable terminal accordingto this embodiment will be described.

[0076]FIG. 3 shows an exemplary internal configuration of the radioportable terminal in this embodiment.

[0077] This radio portable terminal 1 of FIG. 3 comprises a radiocommunication unit 61, a local network communication unit 62, a voiceformat processing unit 63, a TCP/IP processing unit 64, A/D-D/Aconversion unit 65, a voice input/output processing unit 66, a packettransfer processing unit 67, a display 68, as well as other input/outputdevices and memory devices (not shown). In addition, this radio portableterminal 1 is equipped with functions of an ordinary telephone orcomputer according to the need.

[0078] The radio communication unit 61 is an input/output unit forcommunicating with the radio telephone network through any one of theradio base stations 2 a to 2 m (that is selected according to thereceiving signal intensity, for example) similarly as an ordinary radiotelephone. On the other hand, the local network communication unit 62 isan interface for communicating with the note PC 8 that is carried aroundby the user along with this radio portable terminal 1, using radio orinfrared (such as IrDA). These communication modules control the IP datatransfer processing using the related PC control information describedbelow.

[0079] The voice format processing unit 63 carries out processing of thevoice telephone data. The voice telephone data received from the radiotelephone network are processed here and sent to the voice input/outputprocessing unit 66.

[0080] On the other hand, the voice packet data that are directlyreceived from the IP network 4 are received at the TCP/IP processingunit 64, converted into analog data at the A/D-D/A conversion unit 65,and sent to the voice input/output processing unit 66. Also, when dataother than the voice data, such as image data, are received from the IPnetwork 4, these data are processed by appropriate dedicated applicationat the TCP/IP processing unit 64 and outputted at the display 68according to the need.

[0081] The display 68 is a unit associated with the radio portableterminal 1 which is assumed to have considerably poorer output size,resolution, etc., compared with the other desktop PC or node PC.

[0082] The packet transfer processing unit 67 transferstransmission/reception data of a specific attribute to the registereddesktop PC 7 or node PC 8 according to the related PC controlinformation that is specified in advance.

[0083]FIG. 4 shows an exemplary configuration of a related PCinformation table 671 that stores information on the related PCs. Thistable registers a logical name of PC that is to be the transferdestination, a communication route (Internet/Local-net) and an IPaddress (in the case of the Internet).

[0084] In this example, two PCs including the desktop PC 7 (host name:DESK1, network: via Internet, address: IP address=133.196.16.201) thatis provided at a home of the user of the radio portable terminal and thenote PC 8 (host name NOTE2, network: local connection, media: IrDA) thatis carried around along with the radio portable terminal are registeredas the related PCs.

[0085] Note that a Preference field may be added in the related PCinformation table of FIG. 4 such that the packets are transferredaccording to the priority levels assigned to a plurality of registeredrelated PCs. FIG. 5 shows an exemplary format of the related PCinformation table in which NOTE2 is given a higher priority over DESK1.

[0086] Also, in the case where the radio portable terminal is operatedunder the unstable operation environment, it is possible to adopt suchan operation policy that an inspection message is transmitted to eachrelated PC regularly, whether it is possible to communicate with each PCor not is monitored, and packets are not transferred to such a relatedPC with which the communication is temporarily impossible. FIG. 6 showsan exemplary format of the related PC information table in which thecommunication capability information (Status) of each PC is furtherincorporated into the format of FIG. 5. In the example of FIG. 6,packets are transferred at a higher priority to NOTE2 if both PCs arecapable of communicating, but when NOTE2 is not capable of communicatingbecause of the battery power outage or because IrDA is unavailable asNOTE2 is put inside a bag, for example, this fact is automaticallydetected and packets are transferred to DESK1 instead.

[0087] In this case, the communication capability detection module canbe easily realized by using ping program as an upper level applicationof TCP/IP, for example, and it suffices to register the detectedcommunication capability status into the related PC information table671.

[0088] Note that, in the above, the priority level is assigned to eachPC in advance, but it is also possible to select PC by comprehensivelyaccounting for various characteristics of each PC and/or data attributesin addition.

[0089] Also, in the case where a plurality of PCs are registered, aselection of a plurality of PCs may be allowed, or a selection of aplurality of PCs may be even positively encouraged depending onconditions. In the case of selecting a plurality of PCs, the identicaldata may be broadcasted or multicasted, for example, or data may bedistributed among the selected PCs.

[0090] Next, FIG. 7 shows an exemplary configuration of a transfer dataattribute table 672 for specifying what data should be transferred tothe above described registered related PCs (the desktop PC 7 and thenote PC 8 in this example).

[0091] The data attributes can be controlled from various viewpoints,and FIG. 7 shows an exemplary case of specifying whether or not totransfer data depending on the attributes, according to the followingrules:

[0092] (Rule 1) For a voice communication session using an attached fileof 100 KB or more, the attached data are transferred to the related PC.

[0093] (Rule 2) The ftp data of 100 KB or more are transferred to therelated PC.

[0094] (Rule 3) Data of specific applications (Internet-advertisementand Internet-news-clip in this example) are forcefully outputted at theown device.

[0095] (Rule 4) Telephone data that can be communicated by a localtelephone from a PC provided at a home (the desktop PC7 in this example)are transferred to that PC and a call is originated from there.

[0096] As for those data for which there is no matching rule or forwhich no specification is given in the corresponding rule, it is assumedthat the default processing content according to these data will beexecuted. For example, for a voice communication session using anattached file of less than 100 KB, the voice is outputted at the radioportable terminal while the attached data are also displayed/stored atthe radio portable terminal. Also, for a voice communication sessionusing an attached file of 100 KB or more, the voice is outputted at theradio portable terminal.

[0097] Various other rules may be used here instead, and can beappropriately set in view of the situation of the radio portableterminal such as its resources, performance, environment, etc., or theuser's purpose of utilization, etc. Also, the user may be allowed toselect a part or all of these rules. These remarks also apply to thedefault processing content as well.

[0098] In the following, how the transfer processing is to be carriedout for each specified data attribute will be described for variousconcrete examples.

[0099] First, some examples of the control which results in nottransferring data to the related PC (and a special processing is carriedout inside the radio portable terminal 1) will be described. Theseexamples are directed to the case of rule 3 described above.

[0100]FIG. 8 shows an exemplary case where certain kinds ofimage/character data are neither stored inside the radio portableterminal 1 nor transferred to the related PC but simply displayed at theradio portable terminal 1.

[0101] In the concrete example of the third rule shown in FIG. 7, datapackets specified by APPL=Internet-advertisement are advertisementmessage data (image/character data) that are transmitted by beingattached to the voice packets of the Internet telephone. This rulerealizes the control such that the advertisement message data areforcefully outputted in real time directly from the display while datathemselves are discarded, for the sake of those users who consider thebuffering of the advertisement message data at the radio portableterminal 1 as nothing but the waste of memory.

[0102] In FIG. 8, the data packets on which the voice data are mountedare sequentially processed at the radio communication unit 61, thepacket transfer processing unit 67, the TCP/IP processing unit 64, theA/D-D/A conversion unit 65, and the voice input/output processing unit66, and then the voice output is made.

[0103] On the other hand, the image data that are the attached data aresent through the radio communication unit 61, the packet transferprocessing unit 67, and the TCP/IP processing unit 64. At the TCP/IPprocessing unit 64, the upper level protocol identifier is checked andall the attached advertisement message data are displayed at the display68 if the data match with the APPL=Internet-advertisement rule, forexample.

[0104] Note that, in this case, the processing for converting the voicedata packets into analog signals may be carried out at either the radioportable terminal 1 side or the Internet telephone gateway 6 side, butFIG. 8 shows the case where it is carried out at the radio portableterminal 1 side.

[0105] Next, FIG. 9 shows an exemplary case where the voice and theimage/character data are outputted in synchronization.

[0106] In the concrete example of the fourth rule shown in FIG. 7, datapackets specified by APPL=Internet-news-clip are the news clip data thatare transferred using the Internet telephone as the medium.

[0107] This service outputs the image/character data transferred bybeing attached to the voice packets in synchronization with the voice sothat it becomes possible to display picture images or referencematerials related to the news script can be displayed, for example. Morespecifically, a synchronization tag data for the voice packets and theattached data are attached within the data format of the news clip, andthe voice and the image are outputted in synchronization according tothese synchronization tag data.

[0108] Note that, in this case, the processing for converting the voicedata packets into analog signals may be carried out at either the radioportable terminal 1 side or the Internet telephone gateway 6 side, butFIG. 9 shows the case where it is carried out at the radio portableterminal 1 side.

[0109] In FIG. 9 the data packets on which the voice data are mountedare sequentially processed at the radio communication unit 61, thepacket transfer processing unit the TCP/IP processing unit 64, theA/D-D/A conversion unit 65, and the voice input/output processing unit66, and then the voice output is made. On the other hand, the image datathat are the attached data are sequentially processed at the radiocommunication unit 61, the packet transfer processing unit 67, and theTCP/IP processing unit 64, and then displayed at the display 68.

[0110] Here, in general, the attached image data have much larger sizethan the voice data so that a transfer delay will occur. For thisreason, if data match with the APPL=Internet-news-clip rule as a resultof checking the upper level protocol identifier at the TCP/IP processingunit 64, the voice output is temporarily suspended, and the arrivedvoice data packets are buffered after the conversion (at the A/D-D/Aconversion unit 65, for example) until all the necessary image data tobe displayed in synchronization arrive at the radio portable terminal 1and displayed for a prescribed period of time.

[0111] In FIG. 9, the case of carrying out the processing for convertingthe voice data packets into analog signals at the radio portableterminal 1 side is shown, but in the case where the processing forconverting the voice data packets into analog signals is to be carriedout at the Internet telephone gateway 6 side as shown in FIG. 10, thevoice will be processed at (the TCP/IP processing unit 164, the A/D-D/Aconversion unit 165 and the voice format processing unit 163 of) theInternet telephone gateway 6, while the synchronized data will beprocessed at (the TCP/IP processing unit 64 of) the radio portableterminal 1.

[0112] In this case, the buffering of the voice data packets can becarried out at the Internet telephone gateway 6, and the voice outputcan be made upon receiving a message from the radio portable terminal 1notifying that the processing of the synchronized data having aprescribed synchronization tag data has been completed.

[0113] Next, some examples of the control for transferring a part or awhole of the received data to the related PC will be described. Theseexamples are directed to the case of rules 1 and 2 described above.

[0114]FIG. 11 shows an exemplary case of transferring data that satisfysome condition to the related PC while neither displaying nor storingthe data at the radio portable terminal 1.

[0115] These two rules, that is, (Rule 1) For a voice communicationsession using an attached file of 100 KB or more, the attached data aretransferred to the related PC; and

[0116] (Rule 2) The ftp data of 100 KB or more are transferred to therelated PC; are the control regarding an amount of data to betransferred.

[0117] In general, the memory capacity on the radio portable terminal 1side is limited so that this control transfers the attached data portionto the related PC, for a session (Internet voice communication, e-mail,ftp itself) containing the attached data that exceed a certain amount.

[0118] For example, as shown in FIG. 11, in the case where the imagedata of a map is attached to the voice communication, the voice isoutputted at the radio portable terminal 1, but the image data areneither displayed nor stored at the radio portable terminal 1 side andtransferred via the local network to the note PC 8, for example, becausethe sufficient resolution for enabling the comprehension of the mapcannot be obtained at the display 68 of the radio portable terminal 1.

[0119] Note that the transferred image data may be subsequentlydisplayed at that PC or after further transferring them to anothercomputer. For example, in the case where the image data are transferredto the note PC 8, the image data can be displayed at the note PC 8during the communication.

[0120] Instead of the case shown in FIG. 11 in which whether or not totransfer the received data to another computer is determined using thepredetermined data size as a reference, it is also possible to determinewhether or not to transfer the received data in view of the memorycapacity that is currently actually available at the radio portableterminal 1 as shown in FIG. 12.

[0121] For example, it is possible to carry out the control such that anavailable memory capacity data 641 with a value x can be maintained, andif the data size of the received ftp data packets is less than or equalto x, or less than or equal to kx where k is a prescribed coefficientsatisfying 0<k<1, then the received ftp data packets are stored in amemory of the own device whereas otherwise the received ftp data packetis transferred via the local network to the note PC 8, for example.

[0122] Moreover, instead of the cases shown in FIG. 10 and FIG. 11 inwhich the data once received by the own device are to be transferred tothe note PC 8, it is also possible to transfer the data via the Internetto the desktop PC 7, as shown in FIG. 13.

[0123] In addition, in this case, instead of following the procedure inwhich the radio portable terminal 1 transfers the once received data tothe desktop PC 7, it is possible to notify the transfer destination datato the source at a timing of the start of the session that is specifiedin the transfer data attribute table 672, such that the data bufferingat the radio portable terminal 1 side can be eliminated and the systemcan be used as if the data transfer to the desktop PC 7 is carried outas the background job on the Internet.

[0124] Now, in the case of the communication form in which the voicedata and the attached data are transferred to the Internet telephonegateway 6 and the voice data are converted into analog signals there, itis also possible to control such that copies of the related PCinformation table 671 and the transfer data attribute table 672 aregiven to the Internet telephone gateway 6 and the Internet telephonegateway 6 transfers packets to the desktop PC 7 immediately when thematching data sequence is received, as shown in FIG. 14.

[0125] In this case, as shown in FIG. 15, both the related PCinformation table 671 and the transfer data attribute table 672 areregistered at the Internet telephone gateway 6 in the telephone stationin advance, and the Internet telephone gateway 6 is controlled totransfer the received data to the desktop PC 7 in forms of IP packetswithout applying the D/A conversion whenever the received data match theattribute table.

[0126] This control can be applied, for example, to the case where allthe news clip data (that are delivered via the Internet telephone) aretransferred to the desktop PC 7 and stored there in the IP format, whilethe user is moving.

[0127] Next, some examples of the control accounting for cost relatedaspects will be described.

[0128] As shown in FIG. 16, for the batch processing like transmissionprocessing, there are cases where an operation of transferring data viathe Internet to the desktop PC 7 once and then re-transmitting data fromthere to the final destination is advantageous in view of the cost thanan operation of transmitting data directly from the radio portableterminal 1, for the reason such as that the transfer destination iscloser to the desktop PC 7 on network, that the connection fee becomeshigher when the radio portable terminal 1 is used, etc., for example.

[0129] The transfer rule for this case can be given as follows, forexample:

[0130] IF Sent-packet-size>=50 MB, forward to DESK1, then send to dest.

[0131] In this rule, the transfer of any data with a size of 50 MB ormore is carried out not from the radio portable terminal 1 but bytransmitting data to the desktop PC 7 once and then re-transmitting datafrom there.

[0132] It is also possible to use the control according to the rule 4described above. Namely, as shown in FIG. 17, in the case of trying toreceive an information service by dialing an area code (assumed to be408 here for example) through the Internet telephone, if the fixed rateof the local telephone is available from the desktop PC 7 and there isno urgent need for acquiring information, then the call origination tothe telephone number under the area code 408 is not carried out from theradio portable terminal 1, and only the necessary dialing data aretransferred to the desktop PC 7 via the Internet 4 and data of theinformation service are received at the desktop PC 7 side. Then, thedata received by the desktop PC 7 are transferred via the Internet 4,the router device 5, and the radio base station 2 to the radio portableterminal 1, and the D/A conversion and the formatting are applied there.In this way, it is possible to receive the desired voice telephoneservice at lower cost.

[0133] Next, the data attributes to be used at a time of referring tothe transfer data attribute table 672 will be described.

[0134] In order to realize the control for changing the processing ofthe received information according to the information (router) describedin the transfer data attribute table 672 at the radio portable terminal1 of this embodiment, that is, such a control that the attached data inthe voice session using voice data with the attached data attachedthereto are transferred to the node PC 8 that is connected by IrDA orthe like while reproducing the voice information at the own device, forexample, it is presupposed that a data attribute tag for identifying atype of information contained in a packet is attached to each packetthat is received via the Internet 4. There are various methods forrealizing this, and the well known mark-up language such as HTML or XMLcan be used for this purpose, for example.

[0135] However it is not necessarily true that the data attribute tagsare attached to all the information on the Internet 4 in a unifiedfashion using such a mark-up language. For example, there can be someWeb sites using the mark-up language that cannot be used on the radioportable terminal 1 because of the limitation on resources. Also, as ina configuration shown in FIG. 17, in the case where the voice session isto be set up via the Internet 4 and the (local) telephone network 3, thevoice telephone data that pass through the (local) telephone network 3in forms of analog signals may not necessarily be attached with the dataattribute tag.

[0136] For this reason, the desktop PC 7 that carries out communicationswith the radio portable terminal 1 via the Internet 4 can be controlledto function as follows such that it becomes possible for the radioportable terminal 1 to process even those information to which the dataattribute tags are not attached or those information to which the dataattribute tags that are incomprehensible to the radio portable terminal1 are attached.

[0137] Namely, in the configuration shown in FIG. 17, the desktop PC 7make a call origination with respect to the telephone number specifiedfrom the radio portable terminal 1, and upon obtaining the desiredanalog voice information, converts the analog voice data into digitalsignals and converts the digital signals into packets. At this point,the desktop PC 7 attaches a data attribute tag indicating the voice datato the obtained information at the same time. Packets with that dataattribute tag attached thereto are then transferred to the radioportable terminal 1 via the Internet 4, the router device 5 and theradio base station 2. At the radio portable terminal 1, the transferdata attribute table 672 is referred using a value of the data attributetag attached to these packets, and whether to present this message tothe user at the own device or to transfer it to the note PC 8 isdetermined. This scheme is applicable not only to the stored voice datasuch as those of the information service, but also to the real timevoice, that is, the case of utilizing the ordinary telephone service atthe note PC 8 via the radio portable terminal 1.

[0138] Also, in the case where a fee required for accessing the Internet4 from the desktop PC 7 is cheaper than a fee required for accessing theInternet 4 from the radio portable terminal 1, it is possible for theuser to enjoy some merit regarding the fee, by providing the user withthe following function in the configuration shown in FIG. 17.

[0139] Namely, it is possible to provide a function by which the desktopPC 7 collects information of the Web page group that is suddenly becomenecessary for the user at a visited site, on behalf of the user for whomthe utilization fee is high. The user commands the necessary Web pagegroup to the desktop PC 7 via the Internet 4, using either the note PC 8or the radio portable terminal 1. The desktop PC 7 accesses these Webpages sequentially according to the given command, and returns thecollected information collectively via the Internet 4 to the radioportable terminal 1 or the note PC 8. At this point, if the specifiedWeb page is one that uses the data attribute tag that is not supportedby the radio portable terminal 1, the desktop PC 7 may convert the dataattribute tag into one that is supported by the radio portable terminal1.

[0140] Now, in the above, the final transfer destination of packetsreceived (whether or not to transfer them to the related PC) isdetermined according to the data attribute tag attached thereto, but itis also possible to determine the final transfer destination even for apacket flow to which the data attribute tag is not attached by using thefollowing method. This method can reduce the communication fee that theuser have to pay in the case where the flow rate charging is adopted inthe Internet 4 to which the radio portable terminal 1 is connected whilethe flat rate charging is adopted in the telephone network 3 to whichthe desktop PC 7 is connected.

[0141] In the configuration shown in FIG. 17. In the case of carryingout voice communications using the radio portable terminal 1 or the notePC 8, it is controlled such that communications are carried out via thetelephone network 3 to which the desktop PC 7 is connected if theprescribed condition is satisfied, that is, if the charging system is asdescribed above, for example. In this case, the radio portable terminal1 or the note PC 8 first sets up a voice communication channel, such asa voice session according to RTP for example, towards the desktop PC 7via the radio base station 2, the router device 5 and the Internet 4.Then, the radio portable terminal 1 or the note PC 8 controls thedesktop PC 7 via the radio base station 2, the router device 5 and theInternet 4, to set up a voice connection on the telephone network 3 tothe correspondent of the voice communication.

[0142] Then, the desktop PC 7 relays the Information that flows in fromthe voice communication channel between the desktop PC 7 and the radioportable terminal 1 or the note PC 8 onto the voice connection on thetelephone network 3 and the information that flows in from the voiceconnection on the telephone network 3 onto the voice communicationchannel between the desktop PC 7 and the radio portable terminal 1 orthe note PC 8. At this point, at the radio portable terminal 1, eachreceived packet can be identified as a packet received from the voicecommunication channel set up between the desktop PC 7 and the own deviceby referring to the port number of each received packet, and it can beconjectured that the voice information is transferred by that packet.The radio portable terminal 1 processes the packet received from thevoice communication channel according to this conjecture, according tothe contents of the rules that specify the final transfer destination ofthe voice information (whether or not to transfer it to the related PC)in the transfer data attribute table 672.

[0143] Next, in this embodiment, it becomes possible for the user of theradio portable terminal 1 to receive the call termination of the voicecommunication via the desktop PC 7 by using the following method. Usingthis method, it is possible to reduce the utilization fee that thecorrespondent have to pay in the case where the fee of the radiocommunication network is higher than the fee of the voice networkconnected to the desktop PC 7 and the receiving the call terminationfrom the correspondent who carries out the communication toward the userof the radio portable terminal 1.

[0144] In the configuration shown in FIG. 17, if there is a calltermination from the telephone network 3 to which the desktop PC 7 isconnected, the desktop PC 7 responds to this call termination, and makesthe set up of the own device in order to carry out communications usingthe voice connection via the telephone network 3. In addition, thedesktop PC 7 sets up a first voice channel, such as a voice sessionaccording to RTP for example, that reaches to the radio portableterminal 1 via the Internet 4, the router device 5 and the radio basestation 2.

[0145] Upon receiving the voice channel set up, the radio portableterminal 1 refers to the transfer data attribute table 672 so as toascertain whether the final transfer destination of the voiceinformation (whether or not to transfer it to the related PC) is theradio portable terminal 1 or the note PC 8. If it is the note PC 8, theradio portable terminal 1 sets up a second voice channel between the owndevice and the note PC 8.

[0146] Then, the desktop PC 7 carries out the information transferbetween the above described voice connection and the first voicechannel, while the radio portable terminal 1 carries out the informationtransfer between the first voice channel and the second voice channel ifthe second voice channel was set up. At this point, at the radioportable terminal 1, whether the received packet is a packet belongingto the first voice channel or not can be ascertained by referring to theport number of the received packet, and it can be conjectured that allpackets belonging to the first voice channel are transferring the voiceinformation, so that it becomes possible to carry out the voiceinformation processing according to a method specified by the transferdata attribute table 672. Namely, in this case, if there is no need toattach the data attribute tag to the packets on the first voice channeland the Internet adopts the flow rate charging, it is also possible toreduce the utilization fee that the user of the radio portable terminal1 have to pay.

[0147] Now, in the case of utilizing the Internet service or the likethat handles the Internet telephone and the multimedia data by using theradio portable terminal conventionally, if a radio portable telephone isused as the terminal, there have been limitations regarding resourcesthat can be mounted on the terminal such as a display resolution for theimage data and a memory device for storing data. In this regard, thedesktop PC provided at a home or the like and the portable note PC haveadvantages that resources are richer, that handling of applications isbetter, that a communication cost is lower, etc.

[0148] In view of this fact, in this embodiment, the radio portableterminal is used in cooperation with the desktop PC provided at a homeor the like and the portable note PC, and the manner of cooperation iscontrolled according to the data attribute or the processing inside theradio portable terminal is controlled according to the data attribute.

[0149] In this way, in the case where the received image data require ahigh resolution display device or in the case where there is no need toview the content of the image data for a time being while the user ismoving, it is possible to realize the control such that the image dataare stored into a memory on the radio portable terminal side, or theimage data are not displayed on the radio portable terminal side andtransferred via the Internet to the desktop PC, or the image data aretransferred via a local network using radio/infrared to the note PC thatis carried around at the same time.

[0150] It is also possible to make the user interface of the radioportable terminal more user-friendly in such a manner that the URL datastored in the note PC carried around by the user can be uploaded intothe radio portable terminal and the radio portable terminal can beoperated by caching that URL into an address register of the Web browserof the radio portable terminal, for example.

[0151] Also, in the case where the correspondent of the Internettelephone can be called up by the local telephone from a location of thedesktop PC, it is possible to realize the control such that data aretransferred to the desktop PC provided at a home or the like via theInternet once and then the call origination is made from there, so as toreduce the communication fee.

[0152] Note that the above description has been directed to theexemplary case of making the voice output at the radio portable terminal1 while transferring the attached data to the related PC in the case ofthe voice data with the attached data attached thereto, but it is alsopossible to realize the control such that the attached data aredisplayed at the radio portable terminal 1 while the voice data (or thevoice data and the attached data) are transferred to the related PC inthe case where the voice data have a very large size (such as severalpieces of music that require a considerable playing time, for example)while the attached data are character data in a small data size (such asa list of titles of the music, for example).

[0153] Also, the radio portable terminal 1 may be provided with only oneof the function for utilizing the Internet telephone gateway and thefunction for processing within the own device.

[0154] Also, only one of a computer such as the desktop PC provided at ahome and a mobile computer such as the note PC that is carried around bythe user along with the radio portable terminal 1 may be made utilizableby the radio portable terminal 1.

[0155] Also, the radio portable terminal 1 is not limited to one havingan outer appearance of the so called portable telephone, and may haveany desired outer appearance.

[0156] Also, in the case of cooperating the radio portable terminal 1and the desktop PC or the note PC, the difference between the radioportable terminal 1 and the desktop PC or the note PC is relative sothat the note PC having a radio function may functions as the radioportable terminal 1 in some cases.

[0157] It is also to be noted that the above described embodimentsaccording to the present invention may be conveniently implemented usinga conventional general purpose digital computer programmed according tothe teachings of the present specification, as will be apparent to thoseskilled in the computer art. Appropriate software coding can readily beprepared by skilled programmers based on the teachings of the presentdisclosure, as will be apparent to those skilled in the software art.

[0158] In particular, each of the radio portable terminal device and thegateway device of the above described embodiment can be convenientlyimplemented in a form of a software package.

[0159] Such a software package can be a computer program product whichemploys a storage medium including stored computer code which is used toprogram a computer to perform the disclosed function and process of thepresent invention. The storage medium may include, but is not limitedto, any type of conventional floppy disks, optical disks, CD-ROMs,magneto-optical disks, ROMs, RAMs, EPROMs, EEPROMs, magnetic or opticalcards, or any other suitable media for storing electronic instructions.

[0160] It is also to be noted that, besides those already mentionedabove, many modifications and variations of the above embodiments may bemade without departing from the novel and advantageous features of thepresent invention. Accordingly, all such modifications and variationsare intended to be included within the scope of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A radio portable terminal device, comprising: aradio communication unit for carrying out communications via a computernetwork or a telephone network through a radio base station byexchanging data packets; a local network communication unit for carryingout communications with another portable computer/device connected to alocal network different from the computer network or the telephonenetwork, the local network being a network locally defined forcommunications between the radio portable terminal device and saidanother portable computer/device; and a packet transfer processing unitfor determining whether a specific processing of the data packetsreceived from a correspondent device connected to the computer networkor the telephone network by the radio communication unit is to becarried out using resources of the radio portable terminal device ornot, according to an attribute of the data packets or data contained inthe data packets, and transferring a part or whole of the data containedin the data packets to at least one of said another portablecomputer/device from the local network communication unit and anothercomputer connected to the computer network from the radio communicationunit such that the specific processing of the data packets determinednot to be carried out using the resources of the radio portable terminaldevice is carried out at said at least one of said another portablecomputer/device and said another computer.
 2. The radio portableterminal device of claim 1, wherein said another portablecomputer/device is located in a vicinity of the radio portable terminaldevice and the local network communication unit is connected to saidanother portable computer/device using a radio or infrared connection.3. The radio portable terminal device of claim 1, wherein the datapackets received from the correspondent device by the radiocommunication unit contain multimedia data, and the packet transferprocessing unit outputs one type of data in a specific medium among themultimedia data through an output device associated with the radioportable terminal device while transferring other type of data in mediaother than the specific medium among the multimedia data to said anotherportable computer/device or said another computer.
 4. The radio portableterminal device of claim 1, further comprising a memory for registeringin advance a rule information given in terms of at least one of size,format, and content of data, which is to be used as criteria for adetermination to be made by the packet transfer processing unit.
 5. Theradio portable terminal device of claim 1, wherein the packet transferprocessing unit determines to transfer one type of data contained in thedata packets that have a specific type of attribute to said anotherportable computer/device or said another computer without outputting orstoring said one type of data at the radio portable terminal device. 6.The radio portable terminal device of claim 1, wherein the packettransfer processing unit determines to transfer one type of datacontained in the data packets that have a size exceeding a capacity of amemory medium available in the radio portable terminal device to saidanother portable computer/device or said another computer withoutstoring said one type of data at the radio portable terminal device. 7.The radio portable terminal device of claim 1, wherein the packettransfer processing unit determines to output one type of data containedin the data packets that have a specific type of attribute through anoutput device associated with the radio portable terminal device withoutstoring said one type of data at the radio portable terminal device andwithout transferring said one type of data to said another portablecomputer/device or said another computer.
 8. The radio portable terminaldevice of claim 1, wherein the data contained in the data packets arevoice data and image data associated with the voice data and at least apart of the image data have a prescribed tag information attachedthereto, and the packet transfer processing unit outputs the voice dataand the image data in synchronization according to the prescribed taginformation, through output devices associated with the radio portableterminal device.
 9. The radio portable terminal device of claim 1,further comprising a memory for registering in advance priority levelsassigned to a plurality of computers/devices, and the packet transferprocessing unit selects one of said plurality of computers/devices assaid another portable computer/device or said another computer accordingto the priority levels registered in the memory.
 10. The radio portableterminal device of claim 9, the packet transfer processing unitregularly checks a communication capability of each of said plurality ofcomputers/devices, and selects one of said plurality ofcomputers/devices that is currently capable of carrying outcommunications as said another portable computer/device or said anothercomputer.
 11. The radio portable terminal device of claim 1, wherein theradio communication unit receives the data packets from thecorrespondent device via said another computer, in a converted form bywhich an attribute of data contained in the data packets can beidentified or conjectured at the radio portable terminal device that isobtained at said another computer.
 12. The radio portable terminaldevice of claim 1, wherein the radio communication unit has at least oneof a function for connecting the radio portable terminal device to thetelephone network via the radio base station and a function forconnecting the radio portable terminal device to the computer networkvia the radio base station and a router device.
 13. The radio portableterminal device of claim 1, wherein the packet transfer processing unitdetermines to output the data contained in the data packets at the radioportable terminal device, store the data at the radio portable terminaldevice, transfer the data to said another portable computer/device, ortransfer the data to said another computer, by referring to a dataattribute tag attached to the data and indicating a type of the data.14. A radio portable terminal device, comprising: a radio communicationunit for carrying out communications with a correspondent deviceconnected to a computer network or a telephone network, through a radiobase station by exchanging data packets; and a packet transferprocessing unit for determining whether a prescribed condition issatisfied for the communications with the correspondent device or not,and transferring data packets containing data to be transmitted to thecorrespondent device to a prescribed another computer connected to thecomputer network such that the data to be transmitted to thecorrespondent device are transmitted to the correspondent device fromthe prescribed another computer when it is determined that theprescribed condition is satisfied for the communications with thecorrespondence device.
 15. The radio portable terminal device of claim14, wherein the packet transfer processing unit transfers the datapackets to the prescribed another computer by attaching an informationfor requesting the prescribed another computer to transmit the datacontained in the data packets to the correspondent device, when the datato be transmitted to the correspondent device have a specific type ofattribute.
 16. The radio portable terminal device of claim 14, whereinthe packet transfer processing unit determines to request the prescribedanother computer to carry out the communications with the correspondentdevice on behalf of the radio portable terminal device when it is judgedthat a cost required for carrying out the communications between thecorrespondent device and the radio portable terminal device and a costrequired for carrying out the communications between the correspondentdevice and the prescribed another computer are in a prescribedrelationship.
 17. The radio portable terminal device of claim 14,wherein the prescribed another computer is also connected to thetelephone network; the radio portable terminal device further comprisesa local network communication unit for carrying out communications withanother portable computer/device connected to a local network differentfrom the computer network or the telephone network, the local networkbeing a network locally defined for communications between the radioportable terminal device and said another portable computer/device; andwhen the radio portable terminal device or said another portablecomputer/device carries out voice communications with the correspondentdevice via the prescribed another computer, the radio portable terminaldevice or said another portable computer/device sets up a first voicechannel between the radio portable terminal device and the prescribedanother computer through the computer network, and commands theprescribed another computer to set up a second voice channel between theprescribed another computer and the correspondent device, transfer voiceinformation received from the first voice channel to the second voicechannel, and transfer voice information received from the second voicechannel to the first voice channel, and the radio portable terminaldevice transfers received voice information to a final transferdestination of the received voice information according to a dataattribute tag attached to the received voice information and indicatinga type of data contained in the received voice information.
 18. Theradio portable terminal device of claim 14, wherein the prescribedanother computer is also connected to the telephone network; the radioportable terminal device further comprises a local network communicationunit for carrying out communications with another portablecomputer/device connected to a local network different from the computernetwork or the telephone network, the local network being a networklocally defined for communications between the radio portable terminaldevice and said another portable computer/device; and when the radioportable terminal device or said another portable computer/devicecarries out voice communications with the correspondent device via theprescribed another computer and a call termination from thecorrespondent device to the prescribed another computer occurs, theradio portable terminal device or said another portable computer/devicecommands the prescribed another computer to respond to the calltermination, enable information input/output at a first voice channelbetween the prescribed another computer and the correspondent devicethrough the telephone network, set up a second voice channel between theprescribed another computer and the radio portable terminal devicethrough the computer network, produce a call termination messagecontaining a data attribute tag indicating voice information, transferthe call termination message to the radio portable terminal devicethrough the second voice channel, transfer voice information receivedfrom the first voice channel to the second voice channel, and transfervoice information received from the second voice channel to the firstvoice channel, and upon receiving the call termination message, theradio portable terminal device responds to the call termination messageor transfers the call termination message to said another portablecomputer/device though the local network, according to a value of thedata attribute tag contained in the call termination message, sets up athird voice channel between the radio portable terminal device and saidanother portable computer/device through the local network if the calltermination message is transferred to said another portablecomputer/device, transfers voice information received from the secondvoice channel to the third voice channel while transferring voiceinformation received from the third voice channel to the second voicechannel if the third voice channel is set up.
 19. The radio portableterminal device of claim 14, further comprising a memory for registeringin advance priority levels assigned to a plurality of computers, and thepacket transfer processing unit selects one of said plurality ofcomputers as the prescribed another computer according to the prioritylevels registered in the memory.
 20. The radio portable terminal deviceof claim 14, wherein the radio communication unit has at least one of afunction for connecting the radio portable terminal device to thetelephone network via the radio base station and a function forconnecting the radio portable terminal device to the computer networkvia the radio base station and a router device.
 21. A gateway device,comprising: a transfer unit for transferring voice data received from anetwork for transferring data packets, to a radio portable terminaldevice that is a destination of the voice data, via a telephone networkthrough a radio base station or via the network through a router deviceand a radio base station; and a control unit for judging whether aspecified condition is satisfied by non-voice data that are to betransferred along with the voice data to the radio portable terminaldevice, if the non-voice data exist, and controlling the transfer unitto transfer the non-voice data to another computer/device withouttransferring the non-voice data to the radio portable terminal devicewhen it is judged that the specified condition is satisfied by thenon-voice data.
 22. The gateway device of claim 21, wherein said anothercomputer/device is a computer connected to the network or a portablecomputer/device connected with the radio portable terminal device by alocal network which is locally defined for communications between theradio portable terminal device and the portable computer/device, andsaid another computer/device is specified to the gateway device from theradio portable terminal device.
 23. The gateway device of claim 21,wherein the specified condition is a condition based on at least one ofa size, a format, and a content of data, which is specified to thegateway device from the radio portable terminal device.
 24. Acommunication processing control method at a radio portable terminaldevice, comprising the steps of: connecting the radio portable terminaldevice with a correspondent device connected to a computer network or atelephone network, through a radio base station, and receiving datapackets from the correspondent device; connecting the radio portableterminal device with another portable computer/device connected to alocal network different from the computer network or the telephonenetwork, the local network being a network locally defined forcommunications between the radio portable terminal device and saidanother portable computer/device; determining at the radio portableterminal whether a specific processing of the data packets received fromthe correspondent device is to be carried out using resources of theradio portable terminal device or not, according to an attribute of thedata packets or data contained in the data packets; and transferring apart or whole of the data contained in the data packets from the radioportable terminal device to said another portable computer/device oranother computer connected to the computer network, such that thespecific processing of the data packets is carried out at said anotherportable computer/device or said another computer when the determiningstep determines that the specific processing of the data packets is notto be carried out using the resources of the radio portable terminaldevice.
 25. A communication processing control method at a radioportable terminal device, comprising the steps of: connecting the radioportable terminal device with a correspondent device connected to acomputer network or a telephone network, through a radio base station,and receiving data packets from the correspondent device; determining atthe radio portable terminal device whether a prescribed condition issatisfied for communications with the correspondent device or not; andtransferring data packets containing data to be transmitted to thecorrespondent device from the radio portable terminal device to aprescribed another computer connected to the computer network such thatthe data to be transmitted to the correspondent device are transmittedto the correspondent device from the prescribed another computer whenthe determining step determines that the prescribed condition issatisfied for the communications with the correspondence device.
 26. Acommunication processing control method at a gateway device, comprisingthe steps of: transferring voice data received at the gateway devicefrom a network for transferring data packets, to a radio portableterminal device that is a destination of the voice data, via a telephonenetwork through a radio base station or via the network through a routerdevice and a radio base station; judging at the gateway device whether aspecified condition is satisfied by non-voice data that are to betransferred along with the voice data to the radio portable terminaldevice, if the non-voice data exist; and controlling the gateway deviceto transfer the non-voice data to another computer/device withouttransferring the non-voice data to the radio portable terminal devicewhen the judging step judges that the specified condition is satisfiedby the non-voice data.